Sound is my favorite aspect of film, something I really try to pay keen attention to. Naturally, I was very excited to delve into the readings associated with our sound unit, but Balaz's essay is...a lot. I struggled at many points while reading this, but I have emerged victorious, and I now know the definition of the word "din" (a loud, unpleasant and prolonged noise).
The part of this essay that stuck out the most to me was a quote near the beginning: "It is an old maxim that
art saves us from chaos....The vocation of the
sound film is to redeem us from the chaos of shapeless noise by
accepting it as expression, as significance, as meaning" (Balaz 1). Sound is so often forgotten by filmmakers and viewers alike because it seems like such a given, but it is something that can make or break a film. On the most superficial level, bad audio can make even the most high quality footage look like a home video. Further, though, it can provide layers and layers of meaning through all of its nuances (asynchronous sound, acoustic close-ups, and even a meaningful silence).
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